Daimler Commercial Vehicles MENA
Roland Schneider, President and CEO
Daimler has maintained a direct presence in the region since 1998, when its established DaimlerChrysler Middle East. Its regional operations have since seen several iterations, with the demerger of Chrysler Group in March 2008, leading the organisation to be renamed Daimler Middle East & Levant up until the 2015, when Daimler Middle East & Levant was split into separate consumer and commercial divisions.
The present entity, Daimler Commercial Vehicles MENA, is DCV MENA is one out of six regional centres worldwide and is responsible for all of Daimler’s commercial vehicles related activities, across Mercedes-Benz Trucks & Vans, Fuso, Daimler Buses in the Middle East and North Africa — a total of 19 countries from Morocco to Pakistan. It employs a team of 80 people across sales and aftersales activities from 25 countries.
As Daimler’s first dedicated regional sales operation for trucks and buses, Daimler CV MENA is seen an important stepping stone to further growth for the manufacturer in the Gulf region, which includes Iran and the business that the German company has rekindled its partnership with the top manufacturer, Iran Khodro.
Roland Schneider, underlined: “This centre is a clear sign of our commitment to the region. These markets are very important, offering substantial potential for growth, and our opening in Dubai represents the next logical step.”
Between 2011 and 2014, sales of trucks, buses and vans in the region grew by an average of 23% each year, and the group sold 45,900 commercial vehicles into the region in 2014. Despite weaker economic dynamics in 2015 and only 2.5% growth, from 2016 to 2019 Daimler expects its sales in the region to rise by an average 4% growth rate annually.
The three biggest sales markets in the region for Daimler’s trucks, vans and buses are UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, accounting for about two-thirds of all deliveries.
In 2016, Daimler has built upon market presence in Saudi Arabia with the signing of Al Habtoor Motors as a distributor for the Fuso, which has also introduced the medium-duty FA and FI and heavy-duty FJ and FZ truck ranges.
Daimler has also introduced the versions of Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ Accelo and Atego models, focused on the medium-duty segments to complement its highly successful heavy-duty range.
Doosan Infracore
Gaby Rhayem & Woohyun Kim, MENA Director for Bobcat and Doosan Portable Power & ME Director for Doosan Heavy
Doosan Infracore’s regional operations were established in Dubai in 2007. The group currently maintains two offices: one in the Jebel Ali Free Zone and another in the DMCC free zone, employing 14 people across them.
This year, Doosan concluded the split of its products into distinct heavy and compact business divisions, loosely equating to Doosan and Bobcat, and reporting to Korea and the US respectively.
In the Middle East region, the units are represented by Woohyun Kim and Gaby Rhayem. Kim was involved for three years with the integration Doosan and Bobcat in the US in 2008 before heading first to Korea and then the Middle East. Rhayem has been handling Bobcat’s business in the Middle East for the best part of a decade, and joined Doosan with its $5bn acquisition of Bobcat in 2008, since which time he has also handled Doosan Portable Power.
A strength of Doosan Heavy, is its heavy excavators, as Kim notes: “Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest markets in the GCC, representing 60% to 70% of our turnover. In 2014, we had over 25% market share in excavators, wheel loaders and articulated dump trucks.”
On the compact side, Bobcat has spent much of the year transitioning its customers from its K- to M-series skidsteers, including from its S130 model to the S450.
Rhayem notes: “You will never see a Bobcat at an auction, and if you do it will be 10 or 15 years old; never three or five years, because these are 75% the original value.”
However, in a massive development for the brand, Bobcat also unveiled a line of compact backhoe loaders to its regional dealers which Rhayem is confident will secure significant market share.
Doosan also has a parts warehouse in Dubai that holds 98% of Bobcat parts and Doosan Portable Power parts used in the region.
Equipment Co.
Ahmed Badr Sulaiman Al-Essa, CEO
Equipment Co. is one of the leading distributors of construction and industrial machines in Kuwait. Established in 1952, it has built a solid reputation for the supply of quality products and excellent aftersales service to its customers.
In Kuwait, it is the exclusive distributor of Grove cranes, Schwing-Stetter concrete equipment, Kobelco machinery, Jungheinrich forklifts, Skyjack AWPs, Stahl overhead cranes, Kaeser air compressors, Thwaites dumpers and Kaercher pressure equipment.
The group has a total workforce strength of around 400 people, and among its facilities, the company recently built a combined headquarters, showroom and automated warehouse. Its central workshop and repair facilities can perform overhauls and sophisticated repair work, while its mobile workshops conduct on-site training and emergency repairs. Equipment Co. recently delivered 13 Grove cranes to Kuwait’s Arabi Enertech for use in O&G projects, with capacities ranging from 30t to 200t.
Al-Futtaim Auto & Machinery Company (FAMCO)
Omar Abdullah Al Futtaim, CEO & Vice Chairman, Al-Futtaim Group
Al-Futtaim Auto & Machinery Company (FAMCO) offers a wide variety of products and services to a range of industries and commercial businesses covering the transportation, construction, oil and gas, manufacturing, warehousing and marine sectors.
Based in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah, the company is the sole distributor for Volvo trucks, Volvo buses and Volvo Construction Equipment in the UAE, and is well known for its supply of Volvo heavy vehicles and construction machinery.
FAMCO is also the exclusive distributor for a range of other internationally renowned industry heavyweights: Yanmar, Ingersoll Rand, Himoinsa, Merlo and Linde.
By providing excellent service and parts back-up, through skilled and dedicated teams across all of its operations, FAMCO regularly receives performance awards from its major principals, competing with other global distributors.
FAMCO also supplies industrial storage and handling solutions, including the design and installation of Dexion shelving and racking systems. It also provides innovative office designs including the supply of furniture and space saving mobile shelving systems.
Ford Trucks
Mustafa Caner Sinanoglu, Middle East Countries Manager
Ford Trucks established heavy commercial vehicle operations in the GCC in 2014 with its regional office located in Dubai – making it a relatively late entrant in terms of a direct presence, but one it plans to make up for lost time.
Already, in spite of shrinkage in GCC markets, Ford Trucks has already successfully delivered vehicles to a number of mid-to-large logistics and construction firms in its newly penetrated markets.
Sinanoglu notes: “The Middle East is a priority in our growth plans, and we will continue to expand our sales and service network to cover all the Middle East markets — with new facilities in Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Iraq in 2016 and facilities in Dammam, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in 2017.
“We aim to provide quality service and easy reach spare parts availability to International transportation clients, who operate in the Middle East region.”
In addition to these dedicated heavy commercial dedicated facilities, Ford Trucks has dealers, like AJVA in Saudi Arabia, with a vast Ford network already serving its customers across the Kingdom.
At the moment, Ford Trucks has an office in the UAE and a new office is planned to be opened in Saudi Arabia by October 2016, and has ongoing plans to strengthen its regional team with locally experienced sales and marketing team members in the very near future.
Prior to being named countries manager in February 2014, Sinanoglu was the regional manager based out of Turkey, where he introduced new sales channels for Ford Trucks and played a lead role in dealer assignments in Middle East.
In the last two years, Ford Trucks appointed eight new distributors with extensive sales and aftersales reach in the region.
Among the most important of Ford Trucks’ technical developments for its trucks is its Hot Climate Package, which underwent a two-year development period, during which time vehicles were subjected to endurance tests in laboratories that simulated the Middle East’s hot, humid, and dusty operating environment.
Customers’ expectations were studied, and 300,000km of road tests were conducted on roads across the GCC to develop a range of customisable transmissions and cabin modules for both on-road and off-road conditions.
Galadari Trucks & Heavy Equipment
Samer Khalid, General Manager
Galadari Trucks and Heavy Equipment (GTHE) supply a wide range of machinery to the construction equipment across the UAE. The company is the exclusive dealer of Komatsu equipment in the UAE, for whom it distributes bulldozers, excavators and forklifts for use in used in civil engineering, mining and construction across the region.
The success of GTHE in this area has seen it expand to work with many new partners, including Atlas Copco, Bomag and Link-Belt. Through a distribution network in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Al Ain, GTHE also manages the servicing and inspection of all equipment sold.
Commenting on the market for Komatsu excavators in the UAE, Samer Khalid notes: “When it comes to 20t excavators the demand is there, but we are number one when it comes to the 40t PC400-8 — one of the best machines ever made by Komatsu. It is like a piece of art. When it comes to the big tonnage — 80t and above — the market will pick up because the UAE crusher business is picking up.
“The demand for aggregates in Qatar and India is going to increase, but there will be less supply, and that is why the UAE crusher business will boom in the coming two years. The requirement for quarrying is going to be huge, and I think we will exceed availability for certain products.”
However, Khaled has eyes for only one excavator: “When our customers come, they want a quality product, and the PC400-8 is one of the best of all the excavators, on top our excellent support in terms of aftersales.”
General Navigation And Commerce Company (GENAVCO)
Asif Khan, General Manager
Last year was a big one for GENAVCO as it began a new role as a distributor for Liebherr. Asid Khan notes: “We succeeded in concluding deals worth $8.7m for Liebherr earthmoving machines and cranes in 2015, our first year as Liebherr’s authorised dealer. We are also supporting around 100 existing Liebherr machines in the UAE for spare parts and services.
“Liebherrs are being used on infrastructure projects for earthmoving and levelling jobs for new private residential developments on Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road.”
To cover its new brand, GENAVCO already has a dedicated sales, service, and parts team focussed on developing new customers and meeting the expectations of existing customers.
Khan adds: “Currently our machines are being used on Dubai Expo 2020 site. Demand for earthmoving products has slowed down, but our aim is to achieve 5% market share in the second year.”
From the start, GENAVCO has maintained stocks of Liebherr spare parts, and recruited new service engineers trained on Liebherr equipment.
GENAVCO’s operations meanwhile cover Dubai and the Northern Emirates from its Dubai HQ, and Abu Dhabi and Al Ain are covered by an Abu Dhabi branch office.
Its parts and service facility covers 145,000m2 — the size of four soccer fields.
In addition to Liebherr, GENAVCO’s aftersales facility will be used to support the firm’s other principals, including Shantui, Isuzu, JLG, Powerscreen, and Wirtgen.
Gorica Industries
Ivan Fornazaric, Founder and Managing Director
Gorica Industries is a leading developer and manufacturer of trailers in the Gulf region, supplying a complete range of cargo and tipper trailers and semi-trailers, liquid tankers, dry bulk tankers, aluminium tankers, cement mixers, pressurised vessels, refrigerated semi-trailers.
Established in 1990, the Gorica Group has more than 25 years of experience in the region and currently over 1,000 employees across five production facilities in UAE, one in Oman and one in Qatar.
Gorica offers a complete set of products for the construction industry from small-capacity, tipping bodies mounted on light-duty truck chassis to 16m3 to 22m3 tipping bodies mounted on heavy-duty 8×4 chassis, both in traditional and half-round designs — a design that Gorica was the first to introduce into the MEA region.
Gorica is also a market leader and innovator in the tipping semi-trailer segment, where its products come in capacities from half-round 22m3 semi-trailers and 32m3 box and half-round semi-trailers to heavy-duty 45m3 tipping semi-trailers.
Both bodies and trailers are built either with mild steel for aggregate application or wear-resistant SSAB steel, also introduced by Gorica in the MEA region, for heavy-duty rock applications.
Gorica also provides mounted cement mixers in 8m3, 9m3, 10m3 and 12m3 capacities and cement bulkers semi-trailers available in various capacities and axle configurations, depending on the market, as well as low-bed semi-trailers, with 130t capacities.
Fornazaric notes: “Our strategy is straight forward. First and foremost we are passionate about trailers and this can be seen in the quality of our products. We are also passionate about providing excellent aftersales support and care to our customers.”
Himoinsa
Keith Webb, General Manager
Himoinsa Middle East was opened 11 years ago and has been steadily increasing its volume of sales ever since. Its facilities are located in Jebel Ali, with sales and technical offices and a warehouse with around 600m2.
Himoinsa supplied seven of the 36 generator sets purchased by the Spanish consortium member supplying power along stretches of the Mecca-Medina High-Speed Rail construction project in Saudi Arabia.
This project involves 444km of track, which will be used by 166,000 people per day.
Himoinsa is also constantly involved in large projects in the construction, industry and telecommunications market being one of the areas seeing the strongest growth in recent months.
Himoinsa Middle East was recently also selected to deliver generator sets for international telco company Ooredoo.
The rental sector is one of the most important for Himoinsa Middle East, which has long-standing agreements with the major rental companies that buy generator sets and lighting towers.
Originally from Scotland, Keith Webb studied engineering at Strathclyde University in Glasgow. He joined Himoinsa in 2012 to help expand the Middle East operations and leverage his regional knowledge and experience to grow the business.
He spent his early career in the oil and gas industry, with two postings in Egypt, latterly as the country manager for a major oil service company. Prior to Himoinsa, Keith worked with Aggreko in North and West Africa.
Hitachi Construction Machinery ME
Hidefumi Sameshima, President
Hitachi Construction Machinery Middle East Corporation (HMEC) is a fully owned subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. in Japan, providing product and support for the mining, earthmoving, construction, quarry throughout the Middle East and North Africa region.
Hitachi supplies machinery from 970kg to 780t, including various ranges of excavators, wheel loaders, rigid dump trucks and Hitachi Sumitomo cranes.
In 2016, the company launched several new Zaxis-6 excavators and ZW-6 wheel loader, including the ZX490LCH-6, the latest and largest crawler excavator, which joined the Joining the medium-duty ZX250LC-6, ZX300LC-6 and ZX350LC-6 crawler excavators.
It also launched the ZX350LC-5 excavator with a 30m telescopic arm; and the ZX135US-5 for specialist tunnelling applications.
Hitachi’s Zaxis-6 excavators have repeatedly proven their reliability and performance, and the new models build on this by delivering the utmost operational efficiency, according to Hitachi.
Hitachi is represented in the Middle East by HMEC president Hidefumi Sameshima. Hitachi’s regional headquarters in Dubai provide product support, education and training to its distributors and customer in the region.
This May, Hitachi also formed a partnership with Mascus, the online marketplace for used construction machinery, to furnish Hitachi’s dealers with an additional sets of tools for remarketing.
PMV Power List 2016 — Part one: A-C
